A Medical Experiment

Back on the beach experimenting with running while on death's door. Turns out, running may be the anodyne for what ails ya.


Time: 53 minutes
Distance: 6.08 miles
Effort: Easy
Body: Poor
Weather: Sunny and Warm

Everything went downhill fast last night at the meeting's closing dinner here outside St. Petersburg, Florida. Voice: gone. Sinuses: plugged. Throat: Sore. Body: aching. Overall well-being: non-existant.

Woke up feeling like the walking dead. Once I got up and around, though, the recovery began. By mid-afternoon, the notion of running wasn't laughable, but still felt ill-advised. Still, given that it was almost 80 degrees and perfectly sunny, I figured I should give it a shot.

Last night's sunset over the Gulf of Mexico.

Headed north up the beach of Long Key, the island on which our hotel sits. Ran to the end of the beach, a dead-end at an inlet encircled by concrete rip-rap. Turned tail and ran back to the hotel and continued on another 3/4 mile or so. Ended up with six miles. The Garmin credited me with 288 feet of elevation gain. Go figure. Makes me wonder how off it is on a mountain run.

Seems the run allowed me to sweat out some of the bad stuff that had taken over my system. Still wracked by the crud, but on the mend, I think.

The beach is swell, but can't wait to get back to the mountains.